Wellness Warrior – Sunniva Holt

This week we were lucky enough to catch up with Sunniva Holt, a Kiwi wellness personality, mindset coach, and the founder of The Daily Raw, a hub for raw food recipes and healthy living inspiration.

For Sunniva, going vegan was more than just adjusting her diet. After a lifetime of eating disorders, Sunniva’s mindset has been the most significant change as a result of aligning her lifestyle to her values and ethical beliefs. She shared with us her journey to healthier living, tips for maintaining balance, and an insight into her daily routine.

Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

I’m a property investor, mindset coach and food blogger as well as a wife and mother to one little girl. We live in Grey Lynn in an old house that we’re currently in the middle of renovating - my favorite project yet!

What was the ‘ah-ha moment’ that encouraged you to get involved in health and nutrition?

My mother was really into natural health and nutrition when we were growing up so it was probably pretty ingrained in me from the beginning. But the real catalyst was when I was pregnant as I was really ill with hyperemesis (extreme morning sickness) and gestational diabetes. Nothing the doctors prescribed helped, mostly it just made me feel worse. After being horribly sick and mostly bedridden for about seven months I tried a high raw alkaline diet which completely turned my health around. This was amazing, but it also shocked me because I had always considered myself really healthy before that.

What have been your favourite highlights since working in the wellness industry?

I released a recipe app, The Daily Raw, which went to number one on iTunes. But my greatest pleasure is coaching my clients and helping them get amazing results.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I wake between 4am and 5am to do mindset coaching work. My partner and daughter get up at 7, we have breakfast together and then walk through the park with our two dogs to take Lily to kohanga.

Every second day I’ll go and do a workout at Vibratrain, and I also walk everywhere that I can instead of driving. During the day I work from home or from a cafe, and often I’ll meet with one of my powerhouse entrepreneurial girlfriends to bounce ideas off each other.

How do you maintain balance and keep your wellbeing a priority when life gets busy?

It really all comes down to my daily mindset work. I make sure this is my priority every day no matter what else is going on because it is the foundation to my success in everything.

What are your top three tips for staying fit and healthy?

Eat mindfully. You can have the best diet in the world, but if you eat without thinking, eat too fast, eat on the run, or have no gratitude for what you’re eating, you’re still not going to see great results. It’s as much how you eat as it is what you eat.

Small and frequent movement is much more beneficial than punishing yourself in the gym for an hour a day so be conscious of this especially if you work at a desk. Every hour or so stretch, do some deep breathing or go for a short brisk walk, it will help keep your energy levels high and brain switched on.

Put yourself first always. This might seem selfish especially if you’re a mum – we struggle with this one the most! But we can’t fully take care of others if we don’t first take care of ourselves.